Preliminary assessment of solar enhanced oil recovery

Conference · Mon Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1979

OSTI ID:5878711

Bergeron, K D

There are several qualitative reasons why steam EOR may be well suited to solar energy: (1) Sufficient land for the solar power requirements is available, (2) no thermal storage or backup system is required, (3) most of the steam EOR potential is in California, where insolation is high and tolerance of air pollution prohibitively low, (4) the energy form is thermal, at temperatures generally less than 600/sup 0/F, where most concentrating collector systems can operate relatively effectively. These favorable qualitative features are reflected in the results of a cost model developed for comparing conventional and solar EOR. Included in the analysis are tax effects, O and M costs, salvage values, differential oil price escalation, inflation and discount effects. The reference system for this preliminary study is a field of parabolic troughs, without storage, generating 70% quality steam at 465/sup 0/F at an average rate of 1.5 MW/sub t/ per injector (about 350 bbl of steam per day). At a cost of $200/m/sup 2/, such a system would require an initial investment of $2.5 million per injector. With a 12% discount rate and a solar energy steam system which costs $200/m/sup 2/ installed, and with 80% loan financing, the breakeven heavy crude price is $11/bbl. At $300/m/sup 2/, the breakeven price is $17/bbl. If project financing is not available, the corresponding prices for equity financing are $24/bbl and $37/bbl, respectively. One problem is how to handle the intermittency of the solar energy input. One possibility is to inject steam intermittently, but increased sanding in the well casing may eliminate this option. Other options discussed are thermal storage, fuel-burning backup, low level steam injection for pressure maintenance, or some combination.

• Research Organization: Sandia Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: EY-76-C-04-0789
• OSTI ID: 5878711
• Report Number(s): SAND-79-0771C; CONF-791204-5
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020300* -- Petroleum-- Drilling & Production
14 SOLAR ENERGY
140900 -- Solar Thermal Utilization
CONCENTRATING COLLECTORS
CONVERSION
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
ECONOMICS
ENERGY CONVERSION
ENHANCED RECOVERY
FLUID INJECTION
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
OIL WELLS
PARABOLIC COLLECTORS
PETROLEUM DEPOSITS
RESOURCES
SOLAR COLLECTORS
SOLAR ENERGY CONVERSION
STEAM INJECTION
USES
WELLS